Ray Dalio, the legendary founder of Bridgewater Associates, recently shared his perspective on why major central banks remain hesitant to embrace Bitcoin as a reserve asset anytime in the near future.

His analysis cuts through the hype and gets to the heart of institutional resistance. Central banks face structural constraints that make cryptocurrency adoption fundamentally incompatible with their current operational frameworks. Dalio points out that traditional monetary policy tools—interest rates, open market operations, quantitative easing—function within a centralized, controllable system. Bitcoin's decentralized nature undermines the core premise of central bank authority over money supply.

Beyond technical considerations, there's the political and economic reality: central banks answer to governments, and governments aren't eager to cede monetary control to a system they can't regulate or manage during crises. When financial stress hits, policymakers need instruments they can deploy immediately. Bitcoin offers neither the predictability nor the control mechanisms they demand.

This doesn't mean Bitcoin has no role in global finance—rather, its adoption curve will likely run through private investors, institutions, and alternative payment networks long before any central bank mainstream adoption becomes realistic. The timeline? Years, possibly decades out.